When you become an adult, holidays are so different from what they used to be as a kid. Everyone moves out of the house and is only together for a week or two instead of the entire holiday season. People begin to grow out of silly, make-believe traditions. The shortened time together and changes in who we are as people have altered many of our family traditions and holiday festivities that we’d normally partake in throughout the holiday season.
Even though I’ve moved away from my family to another state, I am grateful to still be able to see them and spend time with them around the holidays. Although our time together is always joyous and full of laughter, it’s still not the same as it used to be when we were all living under the same roof. In honor of this holiday season beginning, I wanted to reminisce about some of the traditions that I miss the most.
- The Elf on The Shelf
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Despite being one of the first traditions my siblings and I grew out of, it will always be one of my favorite memories. I remember waking up every December 1 with the most energy I’ve ever had, ready to find where that mischievous Elf was. Every day, when I came home from school, the Elf on the Shelf was the first thing I searched for. I would always be devastated when he left our family after Christmas.
A special shout-out to my mom for always coming up with the most devious and creative situations for us to find the Elf in. One time, she covered my siblings and me in flour and chocolate syrup while we were sleeping and blamed it on the Elf! I was so mad!
- The Making of The Greek Cake
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This tradition is unique to my family specifically. Every year for Christmas, my family makes the most wonderful coffee-flavored Greek cake from a family recipe. However, this cake is extremely unstable while baking, and it’s prone to falling if there’s too much movement in the house. Therefore, it became a tradition in my household that everyone except for my Yaya was banned from moving around while it was baking.
My siblings and I would all curl up in one of our rooms together, watch movies, and talk for hours until we got the all clear that the cake was finished. Perhaps it was just a way for my Yaya to get some peace and quiet from us while she baked, but being able to bond with my siblings during those hours was one of my favorite things about the Greek cake.
- Christmas Tree Selection
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Selecting the Christmas tree was a crucial part of the holiday season for my family. Every year, after we ate our Thanksgiving dinner, everyone would bring blankets and pillows to the living room to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas together. We would all inevitably fall asleep during the movie with our stomachs full, knowing that the next day we would be up bright and early to go pick the biggest and best Christmas tree we could find.
It was crucial to my mom and grandparents that we got the tallest and widest trees they had in stock, so we needed to go as early in the season as possible. (Except it always had to be after Thanksgiving, because you can’t get into the Christmas season before then!)
Although I don’t miss being dragged into the cold so early in the morning, I miss being able to pick out the perfect Christmas tree with my family and “help” strap it to the roof of our car to bring home with us. Nowadays, living in Boston, I just go to the market, pick out my small tree, and have them deliver it to my apartment. How times have changed!
- Christmas Eve Polar Express Movie Night
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The Christmas Eve Polar Express movie night is definitely a tradition I plan to carry on with my children in the future. It just helps make the season feel so magical and special! Every Christmas Eve, around 8 o’clock, my mom would tell my siblings and me to get dressed in our matching Christmas pajamas and meet her in the living room.
After we were all snuggled up and comfortable, she would put on The Polar Express for us to watch. However, the best part of this movie? Every year, she would perfectly time the beginning of the hot cocoa scene in the movie with bringing us our own hot! hot! hot! hot chocolate! She would fill us up on the warm cocoa until we got sleepy, then we would be sent to our rooms early for bed with the promise that we wouldn’t try and peek at Santa!
Although it was definitely just a way to make sure we fell asleep in time for them to finish wrapping presents downstairs, it was special and made us excited to wake up the next morning on Christmas Day. Nowadays, we aren’t able to do this tradition as often because my siblings and I all end up working on Christmas Eve, which is why I miss it so greatly.
- Christmas Tree Decorating
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The most sentimental tradition of all time for me: Christmas tree decorating with my family.
Every year, about a week after we brought our Christmas tree home (because it has to have time to fall, obviously!), we would spend the evening after dinner decorating the tree. With Christmas tunes playing in the background and conversation always flowing, my family had perhaps the most perfect Christmas tree decorating system of all time.
My mom and Yaya would begin by putting the lights on, something that I was personally never good at doing. Then, my siblings and I would be on ornament duty. We would line up in front of my mom and Yaya and wait to be passed ornaments to put on the tree. My Grandpa always had the special duty of directing us on where to put the ornaments. “Put the heavy ones on a big branch!” and “Don’t forget the back of the tree!” were like his catch phrases. At the very end—as the youngest child—I always had the special honor of putting the star on top of the tree. I will always miss being able to climb onto my Grandpa’s shoulders to reach the top of the tree.
Despite not being able to participate in the same festivities I used to with my family, these traditions will always hold a special place in my heart, and will hopefully be brought back to life in future holiday seasons as I continue to age and start my own life. Remember to always hold your loved ones close and cherish the holidays you get to spend together.
Even if the festivities feel silly, don’t take them for granted.
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